In a variety of industries, items are manufactured from sheet stock or panels. In general, a series of cuts and/or folds may be performed upon the sheet stock to generate joints. The cut joints typically require adhesives or fasteners to construct the item. Unfortunately, these glued or fastened joints may be physically weaker and/or have a less appealing appearance. In addition, the adhesives and fasteners may increase the weight and cost of the item. For some materials such as paperboard or cardboard, folded joints are relatively easy to generate and are therefore commonly utilized.
While folded joints are often preferred, for some relatively advanced materials such as rigid composite honeycomb panels, foam-core panels, and the like, folded or bent joints may be relatively more complicated to generate. For example, the sheet stock or panels utilized in some relatively high technology industries such as the aerospace industry, may be rather rigid as compared to paperboard and are generally routed with a groove and bent along this groove to form the folded joint. To reinforce the joint, adhesives are used to fill the groove prior to folding. Unfortunately, much like in cut joints, the adhesive in these glued or “ditch and pot” joints fill the joint and thus increase the weight and cost of the item.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system, method and apparatus capable of overcoming the disadvantages described herein at least to some extent.